lodging differences

[bearwithme]

Can someone explain the difference between albergues, pensions, hostels, and refugios?

 

[mspath]

Check out the posts on this earlier Forum thread re accommodation types and definitions.

Buen camino!

 

[scruffy1]

mspath pointed you in the right direction - go for it. In the end, it comes down to several factors,
how much privacy you seek,
how much money you have to spend, and
timetables: "now I lay me down to sleep" every night by 2230 is a good idea if you have just walked 30k, rising every day at 0600-0630 to shared toilet facilities and not the best cup of coffee does not match everyones definition of having a good time.

 

[Anemone del Camino]

A refugionis a shack/hut/basic cabin to be used in case of emergency. Very rare to find one.

An albergue is either a house or larger building (old school house, church rectory, etc.) where dorms have been intalled, either in one large room up to 30, 50, 100 people in the same room, or divided in a number of smaller rooms with 2, or 5 bunk beds or so. Most have bunkbeds with the occasional single regular bed. A small numbers lf albergues have a private room as well, for an extra fee.

Pensiones are often homes transformed to rent rooms to travellers. Imagine B&B, more often than nkt without the quaint dinneping room, common spaces.

Hostels: same as an albergue.

 

[Kanga]

When I first walked the Camino Frances in 2001 pilgrim accommodation in dormitories was referred to as a "refugio". I do not think the term "albergue" became the standard word until some years later.

 

[GettingThere]

A word which often causes confusion for English speakers - Hostal (with an a). Not the same as hostel. A hostal (pl. hostales) is basically a small hotel. You will also see the word hotel (pl. hoteles) - officially with more facilities but in practice very similar. Generally a pension (pl. pensiones) is also like a small hotel, often with fewer facilities although I stayed in some which I would have referred to as hotels because they seemed to have everything.

Basically - albergue, refugio (lesser used now in this context as @Kanga says) - dorm accommodation, hostel in English. Pension, hostal (with an a) - small hotel-type accommodation.